234 ON THE "ONVAR" of MALEKULA, new HEBRIDES, 



than a toy. When one remembers that over a great part of the 

 area traversed above defensive armour of any kind is unknown, 

 the neglect of such a serviceable weapon as the bow is rather 

 surprising. 



Whatever may have been the process of evolution of the bow,, 

 it is probable that the necessity for some protection for the hand 

 from the recoiling bowstring became early evident. Schliemann"* 

 in his excavation of the fourth city on the site of Troy, discovered 

 a flat oblong-shaped object made from bone and pierced with 

 three holes. Sir John Evans identified it "as a guard or bracer 

 used by archers to prevent the wrist being hurt by the bowstring. 

 The ofuards or bracers found in England are of stone and 

 have three perforations at each end." This identification would 

 have been difficult had we not an example of almost exactly 

 similar guards in use by the present Eskimo "composed of 

 several pieces of bone tied together and fastened on the wrist by 

 a bone button and loops."! Occasionally the guard is part of the 

 bow, as with the Monbutto. Schweinfurth says,t "These bows 

 are provided with a small hollow piece of wood for protecting the 

 thumb from the rebound of the string." Mason§ compares this 

 with the guard used by the Tinneh Indians, " which is a bit of 

 wood the shape of a bridge on a violin attached to the bow and 

 not to the shooter's w^ist." Other of the American tribes use a 

 band of leather round the left wrist,|| sometimes ornamented with 

 pieces of inlaid silver. In Europe the Mediterranean form of 

 arrow released was used in the Middle Ages and is used now by 

 modern archers. " A leather glove or leather finger strings are 

 worn, as Roger Ascham expresses it, " to save a man's fingers 

 from hurtinge." 



* ^'Ilios," p. 566. 



+ Wood, " Natural History of Man," Vol. ii., p. 710. 



+ " The Heart of Africa," Vol. ii., p. 111. 



§ " The Origin of Invention," p. 386, and Smithsonian Report, 1893, p. 677» 



II Bancroft, " Native Races of America, " Vol. i., pp. 494 and 578. 



IF See a resume of Professor Morse's interesting paper on "Methods of 



Arrow Release" in "Nature," Vol. 35, pp. 13 and 14. 



